Belgrade Clashes Leave Dozens Injured During Gay Pride Parade

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- More than 100 Serbian policemen and
civilians were injured and dozens more were arrested in
skirmishes that broke out less than a mile from Belgrade’s first
gay Pride Parade in nine years.

Police tossed tear-gas canisters to disperse anti-gay
protesters and three fire trucks were dispatched to the
headquarters of the Democratic party of Serbian President Boris
Tadic, where a Molotov cocktail set part of the building on
fire. In all, 85 police and more than a dozen civilians were
hurt, while 60 protesters were arrested, said Interior Ministry
spokeswoman Suzana Vasiljevic.

Gay activists were determined to restart the Pride Parade
after giving up plans last year when police warned they could
not protect them. The event was seen as a new test of tolerance
in Serbia as it seeks to join the European Union. The parade
ended in the Belgrade city center without incident as
authorities kept the violence confined to another quarter of the
capital city.

“It is clear now that this (violence) has nothing to do
with the Pride Parade, but represents hatred unseen for quite
some time,” Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac told Belgrade
television Studio B.

Studio B showed clashes in central Belgrade, where strong
police presence protected hundreds of gay rights activists, who
strode through the streets of Belgrade for the first time since
2001, when the event ended in violence.

Yesterday, more than 2,000 people marched in Belgrade to
oppose today’s event, calling for “respect of family values.”
More than 50 percent of the nation and the Serbian Orthodox
Church oppose public expression of sexual and gender identity.